Harry Potter and the Burnt Badger

But the old man just smiled and handed Lockhart the letter in front of him.

Lockhart took the letter in confusion, opened it, and found that it read, "Please use the most severe method to confine Moon Fox for a month. I think we have to make him realize his mistake." .”

The recipient of the letter is "Severus Snape", and the signature and date are "Albus Dumbledore, December 1992, 12".

Moreover, the letter was even stamped with the principal’s special seal.

Chapter 60 Snowy December

Lockhart read the letter in his hand up and down twice, and almost immediately felt a sense of relief in his heart.

Ha, that little bastard was finally punished!

However, he did not show this joy on his face. Instead, he asked Dumbledore his confusion, "Why Professor Snape? Isn't Moon Fox a student of Hufflepuff?"

Lockhart was obviously not dazzled by joy. After all, this matter seemed somewhat suspicious, and it was better to ask the head of Slytherin to punish the Hufflepuff students - it was even better to go directly to Professor McGonagall, the vice-principal. more reasonable.

But Dumbledore's answer quickly answered his doubts, "Ah, Professor Lockhart, you have just arrived at Hogwarts, so you may not know much about it. Sprout of Hufflepuff House The professor has a gentle personality and is friendly to others, and he is not always willing to impose strict punishment on young wizards, so I specially gave this task to Professor Snape - you understand."

The old man blinked, and Lockhart had been fooled.

Quite reasonable, isn't it?Even he had heard of Moon Fox's embarrassment when he was made difficult in Potions class.

Maybe Snape would be happy to do this, after all, the guy looked like an unpleasant person.

Lockhart, who was satisfied, suddenly began to hesitate. On the one hand, he really wanted to leave the damn place Hogwarts as soon as possible, but on the other hand... To be honest, he really wanted to see it at the moment. Look at what kind of misery Moon Fox was made into.

Just as he was hesitant and thinking about how to make a decision, Dumbledore, who was sitting in front of him, suddenly handed over a notebook again. "Also, please take a look at this."

Lockhart put down the envelope blankly, took the notebook, and flipped through two pages.

This is a brand new cowhide notebook with good workmanship and looks relatively high-end - although the price is certainly not as good as his favorite two.Well, as for what’s inside…

He barely understood it.

In recent years, it was not just how to cast a spell that he had gradually forgotten. Even the theoretical knowledge he had learned before was mostly consumed by him with luxurious food and wine.

Fortunately, Dumbledore very thoughtfully wrote a title at the beginning of the first page: "Analysis and exploration of the headache sequelae of the Dreamweaver Curse."

"Ah, this, could it be..." Lockhart looked shocked, as if he saw something extraordinary in the notebook - this method has always been tried and tested for him, and he has encountered it many times. When it comes to these difficult and obscure contents, he always uses this set of reactions to get through.

"Yes, Professor Lockhart, this is all about my research on the Dream Weaver Curse. I believe that in a few months at most, I will be able to find a specific solution to your headache."

Lockhart's hands shook. This time he was really shocked.While chewing the old man's words in his heart, he immediately raised his head and looked at Dumbledore's face in surprise.

If he hadn't thrown such a thing as conscience into an unknown wilderness a long time ago, he would probably be very moved at this moment.

"You mean..."

"That's right, Professor Lockhart, I sincerely invite you to stay at Hogwarts - at least to complete this semester's teaching. This will give me the opportunity to cure your stubborn disease." Dumbledore clasped his two hands together, Harmony said: "In addition, in the next period of time, you don't have to go to all the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes in Moon Fox's class, just leave them to your two assistant teachers."

This time, Dumbledore made an offer that Lockhart could hardly refuse.

You can take a good look at what Moon Fox has become after being tortured, and you can cure your headache, and you don't have to face those people in Moon Fox's class anymore.

Three birds with one stone!

"I have to admit, I was indeed moved by you, Headmaster." A smile finally appeared on Lockhart's face. He exhaled and said with joy, "But I think, well, I still have to think about it. , think about it again, maybe I can give you a definite answer next Monday, what do you think?"

Just looking at Lockhart's current appearance, Dumbledore was very sure that, unless something unexpected happened again, Lockhart would definitely be willing to stay at Hogwarts.

Therefore, he also smiled, nodded slightly and said, "Of course, Professor Lockhart, it's only for two or three days, I still have some patience."

"Then it's settled." Lockhart immediately decided on the matter. He returned the notebook in his hand to Dumbledore, then clapped his hands and stood up briskly. "I'll go ahead. Farewell, Headmaster, I'm afraid my office will be filled with letters from readers after I'm not here for a while - they are all worried since they found out what happened to me at Hogwarts."

The old man smiled and said nothing, watching Lockhart walk out of the classroom. Then he shook his head helplessly, sat back on his chair, and said with emotion: "I have seen others talk about growth and change countless times, but... People like Tom Riddle and Gilderoy Lockhart remind me over and over again that maybe for many people, what they are like when they are young is what they will be like when they grow up."

Another small door in the office opened quietly, and Moon walked out slowly without saying a word. He just walked to the opposite side of the old man and opened it again, and then casually glanced at the "letter" on the table.

"So, when Lockhart was still in school, was he already as flamboyant and greedy for fame and pleasure as he is now?"

"That's right, Moon, he had already begun to show his talent at that time. Lockhart's favorite thing is to be famous. In fact, he is quite talented and has a flexible mind. Unfortunately, he refuses to study magic seriously. He always thinks of some... crooked things." Professor Dumbledore nodded and said: "When he was at Hogwarts, in order to make himself known to all the teachers and students in the school, he even imitated Voldemort's Dark Mark. I made a similar spell in my own image and released it over the school lawn.”

"This..." Moon's eyelids twitched. Although he had already seen how exaggerated Lockhart was, he never thought that Lockhart could do such an abstract thing.

"Forget it, ignore him, let us finish the unfinished courses first." The old man gently brushed his hand from the table, making the items on the table return to their orderly appearance, and then took out two of them. page of parchment "We just discussed the characteristics of Horcruxes earlier. In fact, I am a little curious, what do you think..."

The candles flickered, and it didn't take long for the old man and the young man to re-enter the energy of serious research.

…………

The weekend always flies by easily, and by the time Monday comes again, Lockhart has reappeared in the class of the first-year Slytherin wizards.Under the rather speechless gazes of the little wizards, Lockhart once again started his "acting teaching method". To be honest, the performance was always the same content. Lockhart himself enjoyed it, but the little wizards I'm about to spit it out.

However, Lockhart obviously did not notice the resentment of the young wizards. In other words, during class, he could always quickly immerse himself in the deeds that made him outstanding. It could even be called a kind of obsession. .

The return of the "performance teaching method" soon made everyone in Hogwarts feel in danger, and the fourth-year Hufflepuff students were no exception.But when another week passed, they immediately cheered - because two whole classes had passed, but Lockhart had never visited their class in person.And judging from what Assistant Black and Assistant Lupin said, it seemed that Lockhart had no plans to return to their class's Defense Against the Dark Arts class for the time being.

This news was so exciting that, except for a few students who struggled with Defense Against the Dark Arts, most of the remaining Hufflepuff badgers became even more enthusiastic when writing their homework.

On the weekend of the third week of December, a heavy snow suddenly fell in Hogwarts. The school, which was already full of winter, immediately became more atmospheric. The snow on the lawn was almost enough to scare the little wizards. The entire calf was gone.

With so much snow, a joyful snowball fight naturally followed. Early on Saturday morning, little wizards from various colleges rushed outside the castle. Those who needed to use wands used wands, and those who didn’t planned to use wands. The wand is held in both hands.Suddenly, the entire lawn was filled with all kinds of snowballs flying around.

Moon originally planned to read in the dormitory for a while longer, but because he couldn't resist the entanglement of Gal and Yaerlin, he had to obey the three roommates, put down his books, and joined them in the snowball fight. middle.

However, after playing for a while, Moon, who was almost buried in the snow because of being surrounded, chose to surrender and acted as a cheerleader for everyone.

Of course, he was obviously not very competent as a cheerleader - because he didn't cheer for anyone from beginning to end, but kept laughing.

Especially when Gal was thrust headfirst into the snowdrift by Milton and Arlin.

Not long after, an unusually tall figure suddenly walked out from the castle carrying two iron buckets. Without even looking at his face, Moon could tell that the figure was definitely Hagrid based on his size.

Seeing his friends once again engage in an exaggerated and chaotic snowball war, with the mentality of trying to avoid accidental injuries, Moon quickly slipped away from the edge of the battlefield and ran to Hagrid, who was walking towards the Forbidden Forest.

"Hey, Hagrid~"

"Ah, Moon, I didn't even notice you." Hagrid raised his brows, as if he was really shocked. "The snow came so suddenly, didn't it? But, why didn't you come with them?" Going to play?”

"I went, but I was beaten away." Moon shrugged cheerfully, then glanced at the two iron buckets in Hagrid's hands, and asked in a low voice: "Are you going to deliver them to Lu Wei?" meal?"

Hearing Moon's question, Hagrid looked to both sides mysteriously, as if he was worried about being eavesdropped on some important secret. Then he shook his head at Moon, "No, I'll eat Lu Wei's meal." I have brought him there early in the morning. The weather has been too cold recently. In order to keep out the cold, Lu Wei has to eat a lot, so I always set off early in the morning."

"As for these two buckets..." Hagrid lifted the iron bucket in his hand and smacked his lips, "Okay, I guess I can only tell you for the time being, these are for other 'children'."

While Moon was curious, his mind suddenly recalled the words Professor Dumbledore left for him in those two memories at the beginning of this semester.

The Philosopher's Stone is currently hidden in Hogwarts, and has been placed in the Mirror of Erised.Professor Dumbledore also specifically told him that Hagrid knew the location of the Mirror of Erised, and he had to rely on Hagrid's help to approach it without any hindrance.

It seems like... Could it be that the Mirror of Erised is now hidden in the Forbidden Forest, and Professor Dumbledore has found a living creature to help protect it?

Then this matter is really fun - from Hagrid's words, it is not difficult to see that Lu Wei is now placed in the Forbidden Forest.Now that Lu Wei is there, why does Professor Dumbledore need to find a living creature to guard the Philosopher's Stone?

Unless, that guy is better than Lu Wei.

"Okay, well, Hagrid, every time you mention 'little guy', it always makes me have a strange feeling. After all, Lu Wei may be a little guy in your eyes." Moon said with a smile, but I didn't think of any way to find out about 'another living creature'.After all, if he really spoke, according to Professor Dumbledore's previous instructions, Hagrid would be willing to take him there to have a look. "So sometimes I can't help but think, what do we little wizards mean to you? Little one?"

Hagrid laughed and nodded, "Ha, you're right, Moon, you are indeed a bunch of little ones in my eyes. You are young and you are small, right?"

"If you are used as a reference, then it is really like this." Moon rubbed his hair that was stained with scattered snowflakes, turned his head and glanced at his friends. Seeing that they didn't seem to notice that he was gone, he simply stayed with him. Hagrid walked forward again, until he was almost reaching the Forbidden Forest, he finally said goodbye to Hagrid and went back to join the Snowball War again.

The next day, the little wizards at Hogwarts soon received another good news besides the heavy snow - after having personally organized many one-on-one duels, Professor Flitwick, Sirius and Mu The three of them discussed it together and decided to officially start letting everyone play freely.

Although free battles also have to be conducted under the supervision of the three main persons in charge, unlike the previous ones, this time they can finally choose their own opponents.

And, more importantly, they also get two very interesting dueling venues.

This was Moon's idea. He had been thinking about how to better cultivate everyone's actual combat abilities and qualities through the duel club, instead of just repeating formal duels again and again.

And this duel venue was the method he came up with.

In order to be able to build this venue, Moon went through several procedures, and finally got Professor McGonagall to reluctantly agree. He took over two more classrooms adjacent to the large classroom, and merged the three classrooms into one .After obtaining a larger venue, Moon, Professor Flitwick, and Sirius worked together to transform the extra venue - now, there are two more small classrooms in the large classroom of the Duel Club. Special duel ground.

One of them has a forest theme, and two people can enter from two entrances, and then fight between obstacles formed by various trees; the other one has a store theme, and is reproduced into a common bar, except that The shelves are filled with empty wine bottles that have become much brittle. Although the obstacles here are not so many and dense, there are obviously many more scene items that can be used.

Compared with regular formal duels, dueling in these two dueling venues will obviously require more strategy, and it will also have higher requirements on the adaptability and the ability of both parties to make use of the scene.

Of course, the little wizards did not disappoint Munn. Although they had no corresponding experience before, under the leadership of those quick-thinking little wizards, everyone quickly developed new gameplay in these duel venues, and even explored He figured out how to better avoid martial ethics - that is, to be concealed and to launch sneak attacks directly on the opponent.

After discovering this, Moon just felt so relieved.

By the way, he also began to think about how to adjust the scenes after everyone has completely played through these two scenes.

But this is not urgent, since the little wizards still have to figure it out for a while anyway.

In addition, Moon also learned a more interesting news from Violet.

Since the Duel Club officially organized the duel, these little wizards have spontaneously created a "Duel Scoreboard", which records how many wins, how many losses, and even how many defeats each little wizard has accumulated that has passed the assessment. Very few draws were recorded.Although this thing was not openly displayed in the dueling club by the young wizards (mainly because they were worried that Professor Flitwick would not agree), they themselves had a copy, and they all updated it very seriously.

When chatting about this matter, Violet did not forget to hand her "Duel Scoreboard" to Munn with a little pride to take a look - on it, Violet His points were among the best, reaching ninth place in the entire duel club. Not only did he participate in a lot of duels, but he also lost very few.

Of course, Munn would not be stingy with his praise, not to mention that he was indeed shocked by this ranking.He knew very well that with her smart and calm mind, Violet would definitely perform well in a duel, but he never thought that Violet would perform so well right off the bat.

However, what surprised him even more was that No. 1 on the list was actually Garforth Winters, who also came from the school newspaper office.

Chapter 61 Violet’s Gift

Garforth Winters, a seventh-year student of Ravenclaw House, has been a member of the school newspaper club for a long time. He is usually very quiet and looks like every ordinary boy in Hogwarts. There is no difference between a wizard and a wizard - at least judging from his daily behavior, no one would think that this guy is a master of dueling.

However, the fact is that Garforth is now No. 1 with the highest number of wins among all Duel Clubs.Although there are still many senior wizards who have not joined the Duel Club in order to prepare for their OWLs and NEWTs, there is no doubt that even if all the wizards in the school are brought in, Garforth will still be able to get the guarantee. A top five finish, or even staying on as champion, isn't completely out of the question.

Moon looked up and down the list several times with great interest. After a while, he handed the duel ranking list back to Violet, and then said with a smile: "Awesome, I didn't expect you. So good at dueling too.”

"That's it~" Violet held the drawing board with a smile on her face. "After all, I have the best dueling teacher in the school."

"?" Moon was a little confused by what she said, and the first thought that came to his mind was-could Professor Sprout be some kind of hidden duel master?

After all, during this period of time, because she helped Professor Sprout get that mysterious picture album, Violet spent almost most of her time with Professor Sprout. Considering the time spent in the office and duel club, even if other professors were willing to guide her, she probably wouldn't have much time to learn.

Having been together for so many years, Violet had already roughly figured out Munn's usual behavior. When she saw Munn's expression, she knew that Munn was thinking about something, so she raised her head and pursed her lips. He snickered and said, "Stop guessing, it's you."

Munn was stunned again when he heard this, "When did I teach you how to duel?"

"Of course you have taught me, but you may not know it yourself."

Seeing the confused expression on Moon's face, Violet smiled even more happily. She turned to support the drawing board with one hand, then raised her index finger, gently poked Moon's elbow, and whispered: "Don't you mention some of your experiences and dangers outside of school from time to time, and then mix in some coping methods to tell everyone. I listened and listened, and slowly I memorized them."

The girl's swaying golden hair reflected the dancing light in the fire, and her clear eyes contained not only a smile, but also some indescribable emotions.Moon was in a trance for a moment, as if the noisy and chaotic sounds in the common room had disappeared collectively at this moment.

Violet was right, he did talk about those things from time to time, and he always included some methods and techniques for dealing with dangers, hoping that this could subtly influence everyone.But... he has also watched a few duels in the Duel Club, and there are not many people who can actually apply the things he taught through secret poking.

What's more important is that he didn't talk about these things to certain people in a concentrated manner. Instead, he basically told different people in small pieces, and every time he said it, he just ignored it.

As Violet watched quietly, Moon's face turned a little red. He lowered his head slightly and glanced at the book in his hand. As a result, he suddenly caught a figure that seemed to suddenly become extremely conspicuous. word.

sight [sight].

"Hmm... your spy movies are really worth watching." Moon muttered, "Why do I feel as if you are around me anytime, anywhere?"

"Yes." Violet leaned over naturally. Snowball, who was sandwiched between the two of them, said nothing very discerningly and jumped off the sofa. "I thought you knew, otherwise you Why did you give me that pocket watch?"

Although they haven't really come close yet, in the swaying flames in the fireplace, the two figures seem to be cuddling together.

Moon always felt that the surrounding temperature seemed to be rising little by little.

At first he thought it was just his illusion, but it wasn't until the fragrance in the girl's hair seemed closer that he suddenly understood.

He was left with less than a second to think.

It seemed very strange to say that he had clearly hugged Violet gently, and had been given firm comfort by Violet's arms surrounding her.But at this moment, he still felt bursts of tension due to the proximity of both parties.

is there any difference

It seems not, but it seems very different.

Less than a second has passed.

Moon chose to move slightly in the direction of the girl next to him, so that the girl could naturally lean on his shoulder.

"Well... I'm so tired..." Violet yawned slowly, "Moon, I have a gift for you in two days."

"A gift? A Christmas gift?" Munn gently rubbed the side of his neck with his free hand. An even stranger thing happened. His heartbeat, which was still accelerating before, suddenly stopped when Violet leaned on his shoulder. For a moment, it suddenly calmed down.

Moon felt as if he was experiencing the most amazing scene in the world.

"Well... no, it's just a gift. I'll give you another gift for Christmas."

"Then do you want to tell me what it is in advance?"

"No, if you tell me in advance, there will be no surprise."

"Okay, I'm looking forward to it."

"really?"